Berkeley

Earl FitzHarding Autograph Letter Signed 'Fitzhardinge' from W.F. Berkeley 1st Earl FitzHardinge complaining to the editor of the Bristol Times Joseph Leech of misrepresentation in a letter by his brother the MP Grantley Berkeley.

ref. 13580 — Cheltenham; 11 February 1850. 2pp. 4to. In good condition on aged paper with traces of mount at head. The Earl and his brother loathed one another. FitzHardinge was a notorious philanderer and Berkeley - whose violent behaviour included assaulting the bookseller Fraser and duelling with Maginn - held his position as a Member of Parliament to spite him. The letter begins: 'Sir. You have published a letter from Mr. Grantley Berkeley in your Paper a short time since in which he asserts his knowledge of the quarter whence arises a vindictive persecution and whence come funds for the support of an action for seduction and in a comment you distinctly apply this insinuation to me and ascribe to me an interference hardly fraternal. The correspondence which I now enclose not present the only communication I have ever held will enable you to judge of the truth of the insinuation in Mr. Berkeley's letters and as the action has dropped for want of a small sum for fees no prejudice to a question before a Court of Law can now attend the publication of Matilda <Lait's> letters and I feel it due to myself to make known the motives and extent of my interference in the matter after the misrepresentation in your Paper.' Cheltenham; 11 February 1850. unknown